Shortsighted
by Medie
Summary: How shortsighted these mortals can be... Highlander crossover


Title: Shortsighted  
Author: M.  
fandom: highlander/alias  
pairing: none  
spoilers: none for Highlander. (only the setting is used. two canon characters do get a mention) for Alias - Season 3 season finale  
challenge: slodwick's The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook.  
note: I got How To Survive A Mugging and, well, I had intended this to be a five things fic from five different fandoms but time got away from me. I may still do it though but I thought I should put this up first. :-p  
summary: mortals never see the long term picture...

"Shortsighted"  
by M.  
--------

The first breath was always the worst. Fresh air rushing in and intermingling with the stale lying in her lungs. The sudden swift intake of oxygen inevitably causing a violent coughing fit as she came up right, grasping at her throat. Upper body heaving, she fought to control her breathing, to ease it back from the stillness of death to the regular rhythm of life.

The first moments of a resurrection were always a battle as she attempted to readjust to the simple reality of being alive. Her mind whirled with the confusion of the moments preceding and following her death. The timeline of it jumbled up into one impossible to sort out mess. All of it was tumbling and mixing about as she tried to work through what had happened, where she was...even who she was. The human body had never been designed for duties such as this and trying to sort it all out after a recovery was definitely nothing easy. But yet, she and those like her had no other option.

Of course, avoiding temporary deaths altogether would solve the problem but if there was anything Lauren Reed had learned in her sixteen centuries of life...such was never easy when dealing with the world of mortals. Particularly not mortals such as her most recent killers.

Her hands curled into the dirt on either side of her as she lowered her head and forced herself to take deep, regular breaths. Her body fought the action, lungs still knitting themselves back together from the bullets which had torn them apart. Those were the worst and she spat, clearing the phlegm from her throat. Memories of the fight and Michael shooting her came back and she sighed, an action which triggered another coughing fit. Typically, this was going to create a rather peculiar problem but, hopefully, one that was not unsolvable.

She had prepared for such eventualities of course. Her entrance into the world of the Bristows had not been without it's preparations and dealing with the inevitable death that would cause had been among them. She hadn't really expected Michael to be the one to 'kill' her. In truth, she hadn't thought him capable of such decisive actions. But, then, she supposed in the end he hadn't really, had he? Like most other actions in his life, it had been precipitated by the ever so nubile Ms. Bristow. What mortal men wouldn't do simply for the want of a woman...

Her lips twitched with morbid amusement. What she hadn't caused mortal men to do for the want of her...it was a rather useful habit of theirs.

Well, whatever his reason, Michael had indeed been the one to end the 'life' of Lauren Reed and that meant certain contingencies had to be put into effect. Quickly. She didn't have time to consider sitting around and waiting. She had to prepare. For now, she suspected, the joyful reunion of Michael and his beloved would keep them from growing too curious about her body but the curiosity would come in time.

Fortunately she'd prepared for that. She merely needed to get to something approaching civilization to take care of such things. Climbing up above ground would be her first goal, delaying the search for her body the second. The first was achieved by way of the ladder left by the Covenant's workers. The second also provided by the Covenant. A conveniently detonated explosive charge caused a cave in. It would take some time to excavate the dirt so, for a while at least, the concern over where and when her corpse had vanished was delayed.

With the most pressing concerns seen to, Lauren turned her focus to other matters...

Matters such as locating resources that would take her away from Palermo and that was going to take some doing.

Fortunately, she was not without options.

-------

Lauren Reed was not unaccustomed to hardship. In the many centuries of her life she had played out the roles of many. Villager, warrior, thief, lady, assassin...she had become and been many women to many people. Though she seemed a daughter of privilege to the mortals most recently under her influence that was merely but another disguise.

One passed off with a fluidic grace that typified how she moved through life.

Now she was anything but graceful. Rather, her unkempt appearance and dirty, bloodied clothes lent instead the impression she particularly needed at that moment. Walking the streets of the historic city, she was nothing more than an anonymous street person. Invisible to the passersby. Precisely the way she wished it to be. Unnoticed and unseen. Able to walk the streets, watchful eyes searching the faces of the oblivious crowd, seeking out an appropriate target. She did so regret having to take such action but circumstances dictated it. She had so very little time in which to act. Every second that ticked by took her another step closer to discovery. The longer the CIA had to investigate the site, the greater the chance that they would discover her body absent. There was the chance, however remote, that they would reluctantly chalk it up her apparent resurrection to the Rambaldi serum but she considered it highly unlikely. Given the things which had unfolded, she highly doubted Michael nor the Bristows would be willing to let it go that easily.

Burrowing down into her ruined coat, hiding her face from the public as a precaution, Lauren fell into step behind a slim young woman about her size. A blonde mortal who paid her surroundings no heed as she chattered into her cellphone about a hot new club opening in town. Lauren kept pace a few steps back and listened to the mindless chatter with something that almost resembled pity. She'd never experienced such a life, not even in her most recent guise, and part of her regretted the necessary outcome.

Hardened and cynical though she was, even an Immortal of Lauren's age regretted the destruction of innocence. Even the pampered and sheltered innocence of a rich, spoiled party girl. But necessities were necessities and she had little time to debate the matter.

When they rounded a corner, turning out of sight and hearing of the street, Lauren wasted not a second. Moving with all the speed of a viper's strike, she set upon the girl and grabbed her. The cellphone clattered to the ground as she dragged the stunned woman back into the shadows of the aged buildings.

"Don't fight me." She warned as the girl began to struggle, gaining some understanding of what was happening to her. "Your things are not worth your life."

Still, typically, the girl fought, scratching and clawing at her arms. Mortals had such ridiculous attachments to their things. Fighting for money and possessions when far more important things were endangered was lunacy and yet the girl persisted. She twisted and bit as she fought to work her way free but it was a fool's errand. Her untrained movements did little more than aggravate her Immortal mugger and all it took to subdue her was a mere adjustment of the hold Lauren had on her. Within moments, the struggles ceased and she slid limply to the ground.

Lauren stood over her unconscious form for a moment, regarding the girl. She did so admire spirit in the young but nevertheless, "Some day," she commented finally kneeling to rifle through the girl's bag, "you will learn to pick your battles." She smiled faintly in amusement, collecting her spoils. "And hopefully the fact acrylic fingernails are hardly the deadly weapons you believe them to be."

Nearly the same size, she paused to exchange shirt and coat with the girl before retrieving the cellphone and purse and departing the alleyway. Here, if the fates were kind, the girl would have time to revive on her own before discovery by other, more unscrupulous, persons. If they were not, well, that hardly concerned Lauren.

She had, after all, warned her.

----------

After the events of the preceding days, sitting in first class and enjoying a glass of champagne were treats that Lauren simply saw no reason to deny herself. Her business in the city concluded, she had accessed her own financial resources to book a flight and make further travel arrangements but still, the thought of the girl remained. Hardly a woman without a conscience, she had seen to it the girl's belongings had been returned to her along with certain recompenses and another warning.

She hadn't given much consideration as to why thoughts of the young woman persisted but now she did so. It was likely the fact that it was so typical of the mortals she had encountered over her life. Always focused on the short term battles rather than the long term outcome. Even amongst their so-called intelligence services she had found the same problem cropping up over and over and over again. Rather than give in and accept a short term loss in favor of a long term victory they inevitably fought. Expending valuable resources and energy over things which had no effect upon their outcome. It had worked well to her favor in dealing with Michael and the others, even the Covenant itself, keeping the mortals scurrying about and chasing their own tails rather than seeing the plans of the Immortals in their midst. In fact, it had been shockingly easy but nevertheless...

The ease of it troubled her. As the saying went, it was akin to taking candy from a baby and it shouldn't have been that simple. Sometimes it was so very hard to see the potential Marcus and Darius insisted lay within them. The potential which only needed the right shepherding.

She only wished she didn't have to be the shepherdess. Saving them from themselves was getting so very old.

finis


End file.
